Urban Cowboy Path To RNI

Now the adventure is over and we are back to the real world it’s time to share the journey with you all. Here’s a selection of photos and videos in the other post sharing the highs and lows of the trip. Abit unfortunate that we didn’t complete the full lap due to the debris still floating around on the east coast but we respect the decision of the SSANZ - The Official Group of the Short Handed Sailing Association of NZ team and got to see the ”West Coast” that everyone seems to talk about. For now it’s time to get the boat back out of race mode and catch up with the family and friends and settle back into none life.

If you’d like to follow along here is the link the tracker - http://yb.tl/ssanz2023

You may need to download the yp races app and search for Ssanz Round North Island 2023 and add the race to your feed

3 more sleeps now and it couldn’t come any sooner. The boat was hauled and washed today the YB Tracker was fitted and most importantly we had our Ssanz pre race inspection and we’ve been giving the tick of approval. Still a couple of ends to tidy up but overall we are set and ready to go!

Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand

It’s all coming together now, which mean it’s getting pretty close to go time so we are getting the boat into sailing mode again by installing the companion way spray hood and the new lee cloth in the cockpit.

We’ve also got all the iridium go system set up and working now which is highly important for communications while we make our lap around.

Apart form that the second most important thing is food so we’ve built and Installed a new simple and easy cooking setup.

The lights at the end of the tunnel and we are eager to drop line and get going. For the next week before the start, the boat will be hauled out for a wash on Wednesday and we have our pre race inspection aswell. And mainly we’ll be on the boat giving it a big sort out and clean making sure everything is there that’s need to be.

Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand

Under 3 weeks to go and we are out heading to Rakino to do our vhf and ais check

Just under 6 weeks till go time the to do list is slowly getting shorter. So far in the last few weeks we have redone the nonskid on the decks which was well overdue!

Over at Norths all the headsails have now been fitted with soft hanks aswell as reefs added in the J1 and J3. Out of the loft the rest of the sails have been remeasured and checked over to update our PHRF handicap rating and make sure they will be good for us in the race.

Been abit quite lately with the festive and new year season but we are straight back into it as we only 52 days to go!

We have been quite busy today on Urban. We decided to install a basic solar system to keep the batteries happy, while the decision to set up a new fuel tank system was made as we needed to replace the old keel tank. A new chart plotter and a vhf unit was also installed to ensure we navigate our way around the North Island simply and safely.

Besides all new items onto the boat we have also reinstalled the AIS unit. This will ensure our location is transmitted to shore and other vessels.

Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand

With many hours of work put into the boat now, we are glad to get some new toys to play with. A new AIS Vhf and chart plotter ready to be fitted on Wednesday.